ITEM PHOTO BY KATIE MORRISON
Dante Maribito keeps the puck on his stick.
By KATIE MORRISON
BOSTON – The Boston College High boys’ hockey team showed why they’ve been ranked as the best in the state on Wednesday night. After a strong first period, the Spartans were unable to contain the powerful Eagles’ offense, falling, 7-1, at the Clark Athletic Center at UMass Boston.
With St. Mary’s head coach Mark Lee vying for his 400th career win, the Spartans got off to a solid start against B.C. High. Defenseman Marc Zampanti launched a shot over the Eagles’ goal early in the period as the Spartans put the pressure on. But it was the Eagles who struck first, with Kayser Raei finding the back of the net on B.C. High’s first shot of the game.
B.C. High goalie Brandon Payzant robbed St. Mary’s Eric Pedro on a breakaway, snagging a shot with a glove save. The Spartans outshot the Eagles, 6-5, in the first period despite B.C. High dominating possession for much of the period.
“The hope was to get pressure on their defense, and I think we did that in spurts,” said B.C. High coach John Flaherty. “We forced them to put pucks where they didn’t want to. I think we wanted to start in the zone with pressure and forecheck and feed off of that and try not to let them get into our area.”
The Eagles jumped out to a 2-0 lead three minutes into the second as Ian Murphy fired a shot that slid under St. Mary’s goalie Andrew LoRusso. The Eagles went on a power play after a trip, and just four seconds into the man advantage, the Eagles scored again at Jayson Dobay sent a slap shot in from the blue line.
The Eagles had another great scoring chance on a breakaway, but LoRusso smothered the shot.
B.C. High added a shorthanded goal to go up 4-0 with six minutes left in the second as Billy Roche found the back of the net.
The Spartans got some life late in the second. On a power play, Pedro fired in a shot from the blue line to get St. Mary’s on the board. Conor Foley got the assist.
But the spark wouldn’t last long. Soon after, LoRusso made a nice kick save, but Murphy was waiting there to put in the rebound and extend B.C. High’s lead.
“That’s what you always want to do,” said Flaherty. “When someone gets a goal, you want to answer back. We talk about it all the time…the most important shift in a game is the one right after a goal, whether you score the goal or give one up, that next shift is the most important one.”
Brady McLaughlin lined up a shot on a power play toward the end of the period, but Murphy laid out in front of the net to deflect the slapshot.
From that point on, it was all B.C. High. Murphy completed the hat trick in the third period, and Dobay added his second of the night to cap the scoring.
“St. Mary’s is a good club. They’re well-coached. Mark (Lee) does a great job with his team,” said Flaherty. “I don’t think the score is indicative of their abilities, we just had some things going our way today. Even when it was 1-0, 2-0 and so forth, they had some real good chances, and not to get lost in that was Brandon Payzant, who made some really good saves when we needed him to. We had some breakdowns, and he bailed us out and allowed us to get to 4-0, 5-1 and so forth.”